National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1887-07-04
TALMAGE At THE SEASHORE.
THE GREAT DIvINE's SUNDAY SERMON
AT MARTHA's VINEYARD.
He breaches Novel Sermon on st.
Paul, Taking as His Text Paurs Con-
version and His Escape from the
IDfuriated Popuiace OF Damascus.

MATTHIAS VINEYARD, MASS, July 3.-Many
hundreds OF Brooklyn Tabernacle people and
their friends have made pilgrimage to this
place. II IS one point In an excursion Of six
days, taking in Newport Nantucket, and this
island. The Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, d. D.,
Preached here this morning IN the great
campmeeting tabernacle. Thousands Of peo-
pie were present from oil parts OF New Eug-
land. The music was conducted by band.
DR.. Talmages text was, Through window
in basement was let dewn by the wall''-
Second Cor XII 80. He said:
Sermons on Paul in Jail, Paul on Mars Hill,
Paul In the shipwreck, Paul before the. San
my text we have Paul In a basket.
Damascus Is city of white and gllsteping
architecture sometimes called ''the eye OF the
By emerada az e one lime P distinsusSed for
swords OF the best material, called Damascus
blades, and upholstery Of richest fabric, called
sn nt o%sa Ibis sy c Se h name bos S
thrown from the saddle. The horse
had dropped under flash from the sky, which
at the SAM 70 was SO bright i blinded the
rider for ni2, days, and, think, so perma.
nently injured lis eyesght that this defect of
vision became the thorn in the flesh he after
ward speaks Of. He started for Damascus to
butcher Christians, but after that hard fall
from his horse he was changed man, and
preached Christ In Damascus till the city was
shaken to Its foundation.
The mayor gives authority for his arrest. and
the popular cry is XIII himl kill hmp' The
cityis surrounded by high wall, and the
gates are watched by the police lest the Cici-
sn S escape Many 81 ,ns are
jected clear over and lowered above the gar
dens outside 1t was customary TO lower bias.
kets out Of these balconies and pull up fruits
and flowers from the gardens: To this day
visitors at the monastery Of Mount Siuai
are lifted and let down in baskets. Detectives
prowled around from house to house looking
place. now In another. He is no coward, as
fifty incidents in his life demonstrate. But he
feels his work Is not done yet, and 50 eyade es
that preacher hro The
that fanatic here2' the police shout at an
other house door. Sometimes on the street
incognito he passes. through crowd Of
cIeles himself on the housetop. Al
as trace cs hm They 0 RRavs positive s e SP
Christians, the balcony Of whose home reaches
over the wall Here he is! Here he isH Tho
yociferation and blasphemy and bowling of
are at The front dSo Thsy
The emergency y was terrible. Proyidentialy
there was GOOD stout basket in
Is lifted to the edge of the balcony on the wall,
and then while Paul holds on to the rope with
na ner ''aS o%n and s0Y azhe but down 'u nn
the basket strikes the earth and the
apostle steps out and afoot and alone starts on
has astonished earth and heaven. Appropri-
ate entry in Paurs diary of travels Through
window in basket was let down by the
Observe first, ON what slender tenure great
that cord fastened to that lowering basket
the strength Of 1t. How lift hsd been broken
and the apostles life had been dashed out
What would have become OF the Christian
SaqE'h IN famp aai SappSSoa Ssas
| Macedonia would never have been accom-
| plished. All his writings, that make up SO in.
dispensable and enchanting a part Of the
| New Testament, would never have been
| written. The story Of resurrection would never
have been so gloriously told as he told It. That
example Of heroic and triumphant endurance
under fagelation and at his beheading would
| not have kindled the courage of ten Thousand
martyrdoms. But that rope holding tina
and again great results have hung on VIVA
| seemed slender circumstances
Did ever ship Of many thousand tons cross.
as b sS s1s ssves
only three or four feet, the vessel made water
| proof by q coat of bitumen, and floating on tn,
Nile with the infant lawgiver Of the Jews OF
It? What II some Of the cattle. wading In for {
drink should sink It? Vessels of war some
times carry forty guns looking through thu
| port holes ready to open battle. But that tiny
craft on the Nile seems to be armed with all tn,
guns of thunder that bombarded Sinai OF tn,
lawgiving. On how fragile craft sailed how
much Of historical importance!
The parsonage at Epworth, England, Is o,
fire in the night, and the fatherrushed through
the hallway for the rescue of his children
but one remains in the &c consuming e Building
That one wakes, and finding his bed on fire
and the building crumbling, comes to the win
dow, and two peasants make ladder Of thei
of the other, and down the human ladder
the boy descends-John Wesley. If you would
know how much depended on that ladder o
both sides of the sea. Ask their mission sta
lions all round the world. Ask their hundred,
Of THOUSANDS already assembled to Join theil
living stairs Of peasants shoulders.
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn Island
and right In the midst of surrounding canni
coOny Of s6d
and beautiful homes and highest style of re
llgion and civilization. For fifty years no mis-
Sh No nb a%d nae
heathendom? Sixty years before ship hat
met disaster, and one OF the sailors, unable !.
save anything else, went to his trunk and tool
out Bible which his mother had place!
there. and swan ashore, the Bible held In hi
teeth. The book was read on oil sides unit
the rough and vicious population were cyan
Enlightened commonwealth established, an,
the worlds history has no more brilliant pag
than that which tells Of the transformation Q
nation by one book b di s, not seem ormpc
hold the book in his teeth or let II fall In tn
breakers, but upon what small circumstanc
depended what mighty results
| canoes In our lives. The minutest thing II
part Of q magnitude. Infnity Is made up O.
intinitesimals; great things an aggregation o
q star IN the eastern sky. One book ia
drenched sailors mouth the evangelizatio
ofa multitude. One boat OF papyrus on th
fate Of Christen don ' IN basket let down from
window on the wall. What you do, do vel
!fyou make rope mako II strong and true
for you know not how much may depend O
II be water proof, for YOU know not who ma
sail in II. If you put Bible In the trunk of you
boy as he goes from home. let 1t be heard \
reaching as the book which the sailor carrie
IN histeet to the Pitcairn beach. The plain
est mans life Is an island between two etern
ssTny Dss spPeg as ms b as shG ~
casual, the accidental. that which merel
happened so, are parts Of great PLAN and th
| rope that lets the fugitive apostle from IN
| Damascus wall is the cable that holds to Il
mooripg the ship of the church In the north
east storm of the centuries.
Again, notice unrecognized and unrecorde,
services. Who spun that roper Who tied II I
the basket2 Who steadied the illustrlor
preacher as he stepped into II? Who relaxe
not muscle OF the arm or dismissed an ans
ious look from his face until the baskt
touched the ground and discharged Its ma
nihcent cargo2 Not one OF their name has com
to US, but there was no work don
that day IN Damascus or In all tho earth con
pared with the Importance of their worl
What II they had In the agitation tied ku,
at the door had led them to say "Paul mu
take care Of himself, and we will take care
ourselves" No, no! They held the rope, an
in doing SO did more for the Christian churc
| than any thousand OF us will ever accomplish
But God knows and has made eternal recor
of their undertaking. And they know. Ho
| exultantt they must have felt when they rea